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Audio/Comic Companion Debut Marathon

Blood of the Daleks holds a special place in my heart, being the first audio drama I ever listened to, let alone the first Doctor Who audio story in general. It was on the radio, and having seen the TV Movie and liked Paul McGann as the Doctor, I thought I’d give it a go, and literally hundreds of Doctor Who audios have followed since! More of note in terms of this blog is that it’s the debut of Lucie “Bleedin” Miller, one of the more fun original companions, and also saw the Eighth Doctor transfer from traditional, “old Who” four roughly 30 minute episodes per story, into the “new Who” format of roughly one hour stories, with some being two parters. Also, it’s a Dalek story! Phew, that’s a lot of baggage, but does it work? Well…

This story always stuck in my head as not a very good one, and I think that mainly has to do with how the general fan opinion is that … well, it’s not very good. Upon re-listening to it for this marathon, I can confirm that… it’s not very good. Still, it introduces C’rizz to the pantheon of Eighth Doctor companions, so that’s something! Let’s take a look overall then, and then swiftly forget about it all over again…

I actually forgot about the Eighth Doctor’s run with Mary Shelley as a companion when I announced this marathon, but I will quickly add her into it, even if she only lasts three more stories after this 30-minute one… Mary’s Story is a fun one, mind you, full of good atmosphere and two very different versions of the same incarnation of The Doctor. Intrigued? Read on!

Ophidius introduces us to Destrii, who will go on to become a companion for the Eighth Doctor down the road, but it’s also the first Doctor Who Magazine comic to be published in full colour, which would continue from then onwards, so once again this Audio / Comic Companion Debut Story has more of an impact than just the new companion. While Ophidius is the lengthier story, Beautiful Freak is perhaps one of the more well written and sombre stories in Doctor Who in general, so is definitely the star of this double bill. Let’s take a closer look, regardless…

Endgame is not just the debut for Izzy, but it’s the start of the Eighth Doctor’s great run in Doctor Who Magazine. As his Big Finish audio tenure went on the Doctor got more and more cynical and sarcastic, where as these comics have him just like in the TV movie: very excitable and funny. Izzy is a great companion too, a “nerdy” character within a very nerdy sci-fi series works great. So let’s take a look at Endgame (the story, not the whole Graphic novel…) and kick off the Eighth Doctor’s lengthy part in the Audio/Comic Companions Debut Marathon!

Original Sin introduces us to Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej and is an adaptation of the novel of the same name from back in the 90s “New Adventures” range. Given their final stories haven’t been adapted into audios I wasn’t going to include them in this marathon, they’re really Book companions rather than Audio or Comics, but Big Finish have started releasing new, audio only stories with The Doctor, Chris and Roz so that made them… straddle the line. Given their intro story has been adapted into audio though, I thought it’d be fair game! So let’s take a look!

Unlike the next story in the Audio / Comic Companion Debut marathon, this novel adaptation certainly makes sense in the audio category as Bernice Summerfield has made more audio appearances than she did during her initial novel run. Love and War is suitably dramatic and does a great job of introducing Benny, but the main thing was a rather nasty turn for Ace that sees her leave The Doctor is a huff… So let’s take a look!

It’s the last of the trio of companion introduction stories that weren’t actually intended to be companion introduction stories, as much like Flip and Klein before her, Liv Chenka wasn’t conceived as anything other than a one off character for this story. This is an odd one though as Liv would go on to be a companion to the Eighth Doctor, rather than the Seventh, yet this is still her debut story! ANYWAY, as for Robophobia itself, it’s a sequel to Fourth Doctor TV classic “The Robots of Death”, but it manages to avoid the classic sequel pitfall by not just recycling the original but instead building a new story with the materials provided. Let’s take a closer look!

So, yeah, this isn’t Paul McGann’s debut story, that’s obviously the TV Movie, but as that was already covered in the Regeneration marathon I thought I’d follow the other pattern of these debut stories and cover Paul McGann’s first full story as The Doctor, which release-wise is Storm Warning. It also neatly crosses over with the “Audio / Comic Companion Debut Story” marathon I’ve been doing on and off (though not quite in the right order) as it features the debut of Charley, one of the more memorable and iconic Eighth Doctor companions. So… let’s get to it!

The audio / comic companion intro marathon reaches Hex, one of the best original companions who, along with Evelyn for the Sixth Doctor and Charley for the Eighth, form a trio of great audio only companions during the 2000s / early 2010s for Big Finish. Hex’s arc is long and somewhat complicated, but it’s extremely fun (well, apart from the final trilogy of stories…) so I’m looking forward to one day running through them all again. Anyway! Hex’s debut story, The Harvest, is a great, tense story with the Cybermen being used in a really clever way. Let’s have a closer look!